Do's and Don'ts for Salesforce - HubSpot Integrations

Integrating Salesforce and HubSpot can remove the cracks in the handoff between marketing efforts and Sales. As HubSpot experts, we know.  At Penguin Strategies, we deal with Salesforce-HubSpot integrations almost weekly. 

Let us help you avoid a few of the big errors we tend to see when integrating Salesforce and HubSpot. We’ll also share some best practices that we recommend.

What to Avoid 🚫

• Duplicates

To avoid clogging your CRM with duplicate companies and contacts, make sure that all merging is done on the Salesforce side of things. 

This includes companies/contacts/really anything. Here’s an old Salesforce trick:

1. Switch to Salesforce Classic. 
2. Go to the accounts tab. 
3. Go to Tools: merge accounts. 

This tool allows you to merge two different accounts in Salesforce. It doesn't matter if the name doesn't match. Even if Salesforce does not recognize the two accounts as duplicates, the user can override and decide that they are duplicates. 

• Sync Errors

One of the biggest sync errors we run into is Location Errors. 

Any category that uses a picklist needs to match in both services. Here's a rule to live by: Values need to be the same in both HubSpot and Salesforce or you get sync errors. 

At the end of the day someone needs to go through the data and make connections between things like “USA and the United States of America.”

HubSpot and Salesforce are smart, but they won’t catch things like this and that will cause you problems down the road. 

Other sync errors we run into a lot are Record Type Inconsistencies. Remember, if you haven't given permission for everyone to edit record types in Salesforce, then when you convert into HubSpot the connector will end up with a sync error. 

•  Inclusion Lists

Make sure that 100% of the data matches. It's the best way to avoid any potential sync errors.

Best Practices to Embrace🏅

• Selective Sync

Selective Sync is when we allow only certain contacts to integrate into HubSpot and carry on syncing. You must always remember to add the Salesforce or Lead ID to accurately track the contact. 

Another cool thing that you can do with selective syncing is limit the integration of the user. For example, if you have two different HubSpot environments but only one Salesforce environment for a company, you can limit which records you integrate and choose which records go to which HubSpot environment.

• Automations Headquarters—HubSpot

It's easier, quicker, and generally more efficient to set up any automation for Salesforce in HubSpot. 

• Managing Campaigns 

As both a HubSpot and Salesforce user, the best practice is to use both platforms’ campaign abilities but manage all of the data through HubSpot.

Here are two reasons why:

1. HubSpot and Salesforce campaigns are different and give you different data. 
2. In HubSpot, you have the ability to clone your campaigns with all of the assets that are connected to that campaign. Yes, that includes all of the blog posts, landing pages, and all other assets. 

You still have to update the content to be relevant for the cloned campaign, but you don't have to start again from scratch.

• Marrying the Data

In our humble opinion here at Penguin, it's a good practice for operations teams using HubSpot to go in every week and do mini internal audits. 

Data is always changing, so it's very important to get in the habit of making sure 100% of the data shared between the HubSpot and Salesforce are identical.

Checklist for Weekly Maintenance Tasks:

• Check integration dashboard
• Monitor API calls and usage
• Read error alert emails
• Resolve errors quickly
• Reconfigure the integration is error patterns occur

Checklist for Monthly Maintenance Tasks:

• Make sure all new properties and fields are syncing
• Check updated fields and properties to make sure they match
• Ensure inclusion lists match and are up to date

Summary

Being aware of these common pitfalls will help you avoid them and integrate HubSpot and Salesforce like a pro.  The suggested best practices will help you enhance the effectiveness of your Salesforce-HubSpot integration to minimize sync errors between the two platforms.

For some advanced tips about Salesforce-HubSpot integrations, watch this HubSpot Hacks with Miha, our Solutions Architect. Of course, you can always contact us for a consultation.